Friday, December 4, 2015

Z Nation, Season Two, Episode Twelve: Party with the Zeros

The group have finally made it to the Mexican border, only to find a big wall blocking them from crossing. I cannot believe Z Nation is playing with the whole wall along the border thing. Warren & co fight off the zombies until they find themselves cornered, only to be saved by the drug kingpin, Escorpian. Well, we all knew that he would show up again because up until this point, his story has been unfinished.

The group is taken to meet La Reina (the leader of the Zeros) and are made an offer they cannot refuse a la the Godfather style. Warren decides that it's best to bide their time sure that if they wait long enough they will be able to escape with Murphy in tow. We learn that Zeros haven't just been maintaining their drug dealing empire but actively working towards a cure for the zombie apocalypse. It seems that they have managed to contract the services of Dr. Kurian, who quite like the mad scientist that he is, has been experimenting on humans. With Murphy now under the control of the Zeros, la Reina plans to have Dr. Kurian make up a vaccine using Murphy's blood.

When we last met Dr. Kurian, he made it clear that he believed that humanity is at an end and that Murphy and any other beings like him would be the ones to inherit the earth. I suppose he hasn't heard that that job was meant for the meek. Okay, okay I know, but I couldn't help it. After showing Murphy his handy work, Kurian reveals that it's all been one big ruse. It seems that instead of looking for a cure, Kurian has been torturing his suspects to make it look good for La Reina, which is just what you would expect of a scientist of Kurian's nature. Kurian is quick to let Murphy in on his scam explaining that he had to keep up appearances so that the Zeros would keep him around; however, now that he has access to Murphy and Murphy's blood, his plan is to replicate Murphy.

Murphy still hasn't picked a side in terms of whether he is human or zombie. Clearly, Murphy's allegiances are going to have to be declared soon. As this point however, Murphy is enjoying being the center of attention and eating up the tribute of flowers that the Zeros have to offer. Naturally, Warren calls him on his shit but he is quick to blow her off.

Over the past few weeks, the sexual tension between Warren and Vasquez has been building. That being said, Warren didn't allow that from stopping her from following Vasquez to find out where he kept sneaking off to. It was then that we learned that Vasquez, a former DEA agent was looking for the man who killed his wife and child. When Vasquez sees a tattoo on Escoprion's arm, he realises that he has found the man that he is looking for. Ever observant, Warren is quick to pick up on what Vasquez wants to do. Vasquez makes it clear that he needs vengeance for the loss of his wife and child and Warren is just as adamant that they need to stay on mission, after all there is the fate of humanity to think of. Vasquez however decides that he cannot wait and decides to attack Escorpion and deciding that she has no other choice, Warren steps in to save Escorpion's life. This is absolutely the right choice to make but it's clear from Warren's expression that this is not how she wanted it to go down.

Escorpion is quick to drag Vasquez away to try find out why he tried to kill La Reina. Instead of admitting to Escorpion that he was actually the target, Vasquez stubbornly says that he didn't try to kill La Reina. Before Escoprion can take an electric mixer to Vasquez's balls, he is notified that La Reina wants to see him. It seems that Dr. Kurian has completed his so-called vaccine and needs a human to test it on in front of La Reina to prove that it's safe. Since none of the Zero's want to volunteer, La Reina picks Vasquez to be the first guinea pig. The episode ends with Vasquez being restrained, as Kurian approaches his neck with a needle and the group helplessly watches.

I really don't want to see Vasquez turned into mindless zombie thing the way Cassandra was and no, it's not because of the sexual tension between Vasquez and Warren. The dynamics of giving Murphy, yet another person of colour to treat as a slave despite having Warren as a leader are not great. It would also mean that once again that half of the regular characters of colour would be gone. Considering that we have had Mexican drugs dealers and Doc in full blown Red face, I think that Z Nation has already done enough racially problematic things for one season. I think that in the case of zombie Vasquez, I'll pass.

In terms of Vasquez and Escorpion, I very much have the feeling that since the next episode is called Adiós, Muchachos, that we will have an end to this season long arc. I'm not relieved but I simply haven't been very invested in either Escorpion or Vasquez (beyond his looks) this season.

I know that I haven't mentioned Doc, Addy and 10K in this recap but that's because they really didn't do much this episode. Doc and 10K joked that 10K would do well to find a woman who scared him for the sake of comic relief and Addy spent much of the episode looking to Warren for direction. I really could do with less of the mission to get 10K laid though.